In my last few posts about the Long Bridge bike component, I didn't reference the DEIS which has some interesting tidbits.

One is about whether the bridge will need a switchback to reach the Mt. Vernon Trail or not (hopefully, not).

Four bike-pedestrian crossing options have been retained for further analysis (Note: since then they've chosen a preferred option). Options shown at the public and agency meetings in December 2017 did not show the crossing connecting across the GWMP to Long Bridge Park. However, following significant feedback received from the public and agencies (CFA, NCPC, and Arlington County) that each emphasized the importance of a connection to Crystal City, the potential to cross the GWMP will be evaluated as part of all four options.

The ramps connecting to the Mount Vernon Trail in Virginia and to Ohio Drive in the District will begin sloping down to existing ground once the crossing reaches land on either side of the river, or may begin sloping down while still over the river, which would minimize the need for ramp switchbacks. The determination of whether the bridge can begin sloping downward while still over the river channel will be made in consultation with the USCG regarding the minimum allowable vertical clearance over the channel.

Cooperating and participating agencies also addressed the potential bike-pedestrian crossing options in their comments. CFA stressed the importance of connections between activity centers, and encouraged FRA and DDOT to explore extending the crossing over the GWMP to Long Bridge Park and Crystal City. NCPC noted that any bike-pedestrian connection should maximize utility and enhance experience for all users, and should consider future connections to Crystal City, the Mount Vernon Trail, East Potomac Park, Maine Avenue, and the Southwest Waterfront, including connections to the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail (part of the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail). Arlington County expressed support for constructing a bike-pedestrian crossing as part of the Project, and expressed support for providing a direct bike-pedestrian connection to Long Bridge Park. However, DRPT noted that the primary focus of the Project is increasing rail capacity, and expressed significant concerns regarding safety and constructability of any combined-mode structure. VRE also expressed concern over the safety and security implications of any combined-mode structure.

NPS expressed support for carrying the potential bike-pedestrian crossing options forward in the DEIS. However, NPS expressed possible concerns related to impacts to the Mount Vernon Trail and the need to evaluate potential impacts, including congestion, visual challenges, and loss of vegetation and trees.

The public submitted 1,604 email comments in support of a bike-pedestrian crossing as part of the Long Bridge Project, and one email comment against it. Of the 1,604 email comments in favor of a bike-pedestrian crossing, 98 percent of commenters supported extending bike-pedestrian landings across the GWMP to destinations in Arlington and across the Washington Channel to destinations in the District.

Keith Laughlin of Rails to Trails and Greg Billing of WABA penned an op-ed recently in support of adding a bike/ped element to the Long Bridge Project, and they tie it into the need for better transportation in the area with Amazon.

Many forward-thinking transportation planners see this bridge as a critical link. The D.C. Department of Transportation and the Federal Railroad Administration recently showcased their preferred designs for the bridge, including a separate, dedicated bridge for bicyclists and pedestrians. On the surface, it looks like a victory for regional mobility.

However, elected and appointed officials involved have repeatedly cited cost as a reason to limit the project and focus only on rail. With the bicycle/pedestrian bridge planned as separate infrastructure, there is a risk that this segment of the project would come last and face significant hurdles.

While the news of DDOT’s plans for the Long Bridge are positive, all of the project partners need to commit to funding the preferred design (two new bridges to provide rail and trail access) in its entirety, ensuring a timely delivery of both increased rail capacity and increased trail capacity. They also need to evaluate the planned D.C. endpoint. Amazon could leverage political will and financial support to help the trail project come to fruition.

The expansion of the Long Bridge is likely to include a new multi-use trail bridge from Long Bridge Park to East Potomac Park that could be available by 2025.

Last night project members presented the preferred alternatives for the bridge. The plan is to expand the number of rail lines crossing the Potomac from two to four, and the options were to build two new bridges or build one new and rehabilitate the other. They chose the latter. In addition they're proposing to include a separate multi-use trail bridge connecting Long Bridge Park, the Mt. Vernon Trail and East Potomac Park as a potential Section 4(f) Mitigation. While DDOT wouldn't say how likely it was that the MUT would be built, they noted that there was support from everyone relevant and no opposition. All they need is the money (and a project sponsor which will likely be DDOT). I'll add that DDOT has shown sustained interest in the MUT bridge so I'm more optimistic than pessimistic that it will happen.

For cyclists the railroad bridge options are identical. The main impacts are that the 2nd bridge will cross over the Mount Vernon Trail, a wider railroad bridge will go over the Anacostia Riverwalk and the current pedestrian bridge over Maine will be removed and replaced creating a better connection between the Riverwalk and Maryland Avenue.

I'd proposed that the trail be extended to Maine Ave or even L'Enfant Plaza but that isn't going to happen and it would be incredibly expensive to do so. I didn't realize that the trackage would be expanded on the east end and the additional 4th track is in the space where I'd thought a trail could go. The real tight spot is at Maine Ave where the tracks abut the ramp from "14th Street" to Maine on the "north" side and the Mandarin hotel on the south side. Fitting a trail in that area would be difficult. And extending the trail would require four more bridges. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it would neither easy nor cheap.

The trail bridge would be a separate bridge north of the railroad bridge, between it and the Metro Bridge. Separating it from the railroad bridge will reduce the costs by about 20%, reduce security needs, simplify inspection and maintenance, reduce the footprint and is what the railroads prefer. It will be on the upstream side to allow for an easy connection to the Long Bridge Park. It will have three connections, one at Long Bridge Park, one at the Mt. Vernon Trail and one at Ohio Drive, SW in East Potomac Park. In that way it's really doing the work of two separate bridges.

The trail bridge will be 14' wide and 25' from the railroad. It's considered 4(f) mitigation in exchange for using NPS land.

Interestingly, the project will require the demolition of the current pedestrian bridge across Maine from the Mandarin to the Anacostia Riverwalk, which I think was named the Rosa Parks Bridge during a contest after it opened, but the article announcing the name is no longer online as near as I can tell. The current bridge, which opened in 2004, has stairs on the Washington Channel side and isn't particularly useful. As the Post noted

But it's a niggling thing, hard to find and, for wheelchair users, impossible to navigate.

The replacement will have a ramp which should make it more useful for cyclists who want to get to/from Maryland Avenue. Not sure if they'll move and re-use the historic railroad bridge or build something new.

Who knows, maybe the two new bike bridges will serve as the down payment on a direct connection. The Rosa Parks could be extended to Ohio Drive SW, where it would be on the opposite side of the railroad tracks, which is not much of a detour for a cyclist. Maybe someday...

The community and Amazon employees will benefit from the Commonwealth investing $195 million in infrastructure in the neighborhood, including improvements to the Crystal City and the Potomac Yard Metro stations; a pedestrian bridge connecting National Landing and Reagan National Airport; and work to improve safety, accessibility, and the pedestrian experience crossing Route 1 over the next 10 years.

It seems reasonable to believe that added density in the urban core would lead to more biking, walking and transit, especially considering the corporate culture.

Compared with other large corporations, Amazon employees are less likely to commute by car, as about 55 percent either walk, bike or take public transit, according to a survey the company did of its Seattle workforce. The company purchases transit cards for employees and is building a dedicated cycle track to separate bikes from cars near its Seattle buildings.

The area is already more bike friendly than most. It has a couple of connections to the Mt. Vernon Trail, bike facilities down the middle on Crystal Drive, the Four Mile Run Trail and other small trails as well as other bike lanes. That's not to say that a few protected bike lanes or better east-west connections wouldn't help, but just that it starts out in pretty good shape.

One thing that would make biking in the area better would be a bike span as part of the new Long Bridge, especially if it goes to Long Bridge Park. Also an easier bike connection to the airport - which might be addressed by the new pedestrian bridge - would be great.

At last month's presentation, they stated that the feasibility of a bike-pedestrian crossing will continue to be evaluated, but that they were not screened as part of the Level 2 Screening. They add that a bike/ped crossing must

– Provide 25 feet clearance between bridges over the river– Avoid DoD Facility– Connect to the existing bike-pedestrian network– Have less than 5% slope on the ramps from the crossing to the existing trails

Which they note is potentially feasible, but the three options they show are drawn to go from shore to shore and nothing more.

The Long Bridge is over 100 years old, so it's important that we make the right choices now, but this current set of options are all lacking in ambition. In fact this is the bare minimum (I guess they could end it just feet away from the shore and you could bunny-hop that last bit, but that won't appeal to some cyclists).

I've said it before, but the ideal design goes from Long Bridge Park in Arlington to Hancock Park in DC, which I admit has a lot of barriers to it, but would be worth it.

These alternatives would all connect the Mt Vernon Trail to Ohio Drive, which is good, even though it's not much of an improvement over the current sidepath on the George Mason Bridge. But for some users it would be the preferred choice.

But, below are some other connections that would make it even better.

Long Bridge Park

Arlington already plans to build a connection from Long Bridge Park to the Mt. Vernon Trail. Since this area is included even in the new, smaller project area (below), it would make sense to this all together at once. Then we can avoid a bridge crossing that ends at trail level and a Park connection that ends at trail level somewhere else. What I think we'd want is a crossing that stays at rail level all the way, with one bridge down to the trail.

The other Ohio Drive, SW

After getting to East Potomac Park and crossing the island the railroad again goes over Ohio Drive. A small ramp could easily be added that would drop it down to street level. A path to here wouldn't add much (but slightly more grade separation) but a ramp from a trail going across the channel wouldn't cost much.

This is where it starts to get tricky, but continuing the path across Maine Avenue. There isn't room between the railroad bride and the Rosa Parks Bridge (just go with it), and I think cycling is not allowed on that bridge, so that rule would need to change. But currently, that bridge only connects to the Portals I building. A bridge from the north side of the east end of that bridge would need to be built over the existing track and then come down to rail level on space on the north side of the tracks. Currently construction (on Portals V, I think) is going on there, so I'm not sure there is space on the north side and if there is, I doubt it is just "extra" space. So, this may be where the idea dies, but if there is room, the trail could then connect to the Portals V project as well. In the image below it would have to go to the right of the tracks somewhere.

L'Enfant Plaza

If the path could make it through that part, then it gets interesting. There appears to be an unused rail line from just east of L'Enfant Plaza to the Portals. I think it used to be used to deliver coal to the building that used to be down there. Maybe the railroads use it as sidling. But if not - trail. You can see it on the left in the image below. The tracks are clearly more rusted than those to the right. Anyway, the idea of turning this into a trail is included in the DC Rail Plan, though it would likely require some expensive separation and bring a lot of opposition from CSX/VR/Amtrak. If so it could connect to the parking lot at 1000 Independence Ave SW, which is - behind a security barrier. Sigh.

Hancock Park

Here it gets harder again. There's a crossover from the unused line to the mainline just east of L'Enfant plaza, and VRE uses the part east of that to access their L'Enfant station. So the only way to continue the trail would be to do so on the extra ROW north of the tracks. Which CSX would probably not be too keen on.

But, that would get you to the very sad Hancock Park on C Street between 7th and 9th, SW where there's a Capital Bikeshare station. The park itself looks a little abandoned an unused, except for the area where CSX is obviously driving vehicles across to access the ROW at the spot above where I leaned out over a plastic fence to get this photo.

Getting to Hancock Park might be too difficult and/or too late (but DDOT should still study it to make sure) but not building a path from Long Bridge Park to the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail is almost malpractice. If you think so to, again I'll mention that comments can be provided to info@longbridgeproject.com until January 16, 2018.

Arlington County has released videos showing the four proposals for the Long Bridge Aquatics and Fitness Center, which constitutes phase II of the project. In addition to the fitness center, Phase II will extend the bike trail along the east side about 2 weeks blocks to the GW Parkway. Eventually the plan is to carry this trail over the parkway to connect with the Mt Vernon Trail and possibly a pedestrian/bicycle path across the Potomac on a new Long Bridge.

The videos show some shots of the trail and I've tracked to capture those below.

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) are hosting another meeting on the Long Bridge replacement project, this one will be tomorrow, from 4-7pm at L'Enfant Plaza Club Room (Oh, there's a club for L'Enfant Plaza? How fun.) This will be an

informational meeting to review and comment on the preliminary concept screening results for the Long Bridge Project. Concept screening helps identify and develop project alternatives that will be evaluated in an Environment Impact Statement. This meeting is also a part of the concurrent consultation for Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).

As a reminder, DDOT is considering replacing the Long Bridge (the railroad bridge across the Potomac). Some of the alternatives considered thus far would include a new bicycle crossing connecting Long Bridge Park and/or the MVT on the Virginia side with Ohio Drive on both sides of East Potomac Park, the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail and/or 12th Street in SW DC. They're currently in Phase II of the study which involves defining the purpose and need and identifying some preliminary concept alternatives. The last meeting on this was in September of 2016 and since then a few new documents have dropped.

They've issued a Draft Purpose and Need which makes it clear that the purpose and need is all about the railroad, something WABA suggested they change (see below)

Defined the study area as the rail corridor and land around it from the Crystal City VRE to CP Virginia, an area that includes both the Mt. Vernon and the Anacostia Riverwalk Trails.

They've released a scoping report. "This Scoping Report summarizes the agency and public involvement efforts undertaken, comments received during the scoping period, and additional comments received before the report was finalized." Here are some of the comment notes:

Four comments cited the importance of providing a safety barrier separating bikes and pedestrians from rail.

Twenty comments supported providing bike and pedestrian access.

The Friends of Long Bridge Park and Crystal City Civic Association noted their support for alternatives providing increased local access for the Crystal City community by including a pedestrian and bike lane from Long Bridge Park to the Mt. Vernon Trail and the District.

The Southern Environmental Law Center recommended against further consideration of alternatives that would add general purpose automobile lanes at this crossing due to potential impacts to community and environmental resources. However, it was recommended that the EIS further consider a bicycle and pedestrian crossing to connect existing trail networks and reduce air pollution by promoting greater usage of these travel modes.

The National Capital Planning Commission recommended the study consider "Maximizing pedestrian and bicycle use and connectivity in a manner that ensures pedestrian access between transit modes"

WABA stated that the draft EIS Purpose and Need Statement is too narrowly focused on the needs of freight and passenger rail. WABA further suggested that expanding the capacity, redundancy, and regional connectivity of the bicycle trail network should be a core element of the draft EIS Purpose and Need Statement and selection criteria.

More specifically, WABA wrote

The Long Bridge may be the only blank canvas for a Potomac crossing that the region considers for the next fifty years in this location.

With the scale of the opportunity in mind, we believe that the draft Purpose and Need for the Long Bridge Study is too narrowly focussed on the needs of freight and passenger rail. Indeed, expanding rail capacity, reliability and redundancy are essential to meet the growing demands of a 22nd century rail system. Yet, the regional trail network faces similar challenges to realize long term connectivity plans. Alongside rail improvements, expanding the capacity, redundancy, and regional connectivity of the trail network should be a core element of the study’s purpose and need statement and selection criteria. A Long Bridge replacement without a high-quality trail is a wasted, once-in-a-century, opportunity.

Of the eight Potomac River bridges that connect Virginia into downtown DC,...not one fully satisfies today’s trail standards for width, sight distances or protection from traffic.

]working through a Federal Highway Administration/Virginia Department of Transportation technical analysis known as an Interchange Modification Report (IMR). This report will include a technical model to test a number of design concepts for the interchange and ultimately lead to a preferred alternative for this important transportation gateway to Arlington County.

It's not clear how soon the IMR will be completed, but it does appear that their is now a preferred design as recently reported to the County Board.

East of I-395, the preferred concept uses Concept 1 and west of it it uses Concept 2 except on the far west end. On the west end, the preferred design has no trail on the south side of Boundary Channel (west of the Pentagon Access Road) and on the north side, the trail stops a few feet shorter - at the driveway along the Pentagon Lagoon.

The path will have a design speed limit of 18mph.

Design of the fully funded Boundary Channel Drive Interchange project is expected to begin in 2017, with construction forecast to start in 2020.

DDOT is considering replacing the Long Bridge (the railroad bridge across the Potomac) and some of the alternatives considered thus far would include a new bicycle crossing connecting Long Bridge Park and/or the MVT on the Virginia side with Ohio Drive on both sides of East Potomac Park, the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail and/or 12th Street in SW DC. They're currently in Phase II of the study which involves defining the purpose and need and identifying some preliminary concept alternatives. As part of this process they're having their 2nd public meeting, for public scoping, on Sept 14th.

The scoping meeting will focus on recent project activities, next steps in the study process, the proposed EIS Study Area, the purpose and need for the project, alternative screening criteria, environmental impacts to be considered and evaluated, and methodologies to be used for evaluating impacts.

Phase II of the study should wrap up by the end of the year, according to the schedule today, and Phase III in Spring 2019. This puts it a little behind, as in February, we were to be starting Phase III around now and finishing it in Winter 2018.

Combined resources for the project, including the federal grant, private investment and other public funding, total $1.4 billion The FASTLANE grant will leverage $565 million in private investments and $710 million in other transportation funds to restore 14 miles of right-of-way to improve reliability and capacity for freight, regional/commuter and intercity passenger rail service. Phase 1 of the project will relieve congestion at Long Bridge and enable the state to acquire the S Line from CSX. The S Line is an abandoned rail corridor that runs from North Carolina to the Richmond, Va., area; public ownership is key for the proposed Southeast High Speed Rail corridor, as well as other transportation projects involving highways and bridges.

The Long Bridge project might include a new bicycle crossing connecting Long Bridge Park and/or the MVT on the Virginia side with Ohio Drive on both sides of East Potomac Park, the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail and/or 12th Street in SW DC. From the Phase I study report:

The Long Bridge study area features a number of pedestrian/bicycle facilities as shown in Figure 5.15. These facilities would connect with pedestrian/bicycle options for each of the Long Bridge alternatives. Key locations from the alternatives include ramp and staircase options to the Mount Vernon Trail in Virginia, two locations on East Potomac Park, and District options along Maine Avenue, SW. Either end of an alternative will also carry pedestrians and bicycles to Long Bridge Park in Virginia and 12th Street, SW, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel.

there is considerable opportunity for pedestrian/bicycle trips to use a new crossing if destinations are provided in Virginia. These trips only represent the activity of individuals that live or work within the study area. Pedestrian/ bicycle activity related to visitor and recreational activity would add additional demand to moving without a vehicle across a Potomac River alternative.

As with the previous two public meetings, the value of providing pedestrian/bicycle options was considered very important for any alternative that moves forward. Participants wanted the opportunity to travel between the District and Virginia and be provided additional options beyond the current 14th Street Bridge.

Phase I of that study is done and phase II is underway. Phase II should be complete by the end of the summer, which will be followed by...wait for it...phase III. The whole EIS process is to be completed by the end of 2018.

The S line also represents a bicycle project, though not in the DC area. As part of the study they're including a "Greenway Concept" which would build a parallel trail for most of the way between Richmond and Raleigh. It would likely become part of the East Coast Greenway.